US Stocks Rise; Knight Capital Gets Lifeline

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks were marching upward, riding a tailwind of optimism from the most recent job numbers released last week. Other global markets also rose.

Also on Monday, Knight Capital Group, which is fighting for survival after a disastrous software glitch sent trading haywire last week, said it has lined up $400 million in financing that will allow the firm to continue operations. And the founder of Best Buy has offered to buy the company.

There are no economic indicators being released Monday, so the surprisingly positive jobs figures released Friday continued to dominate trading.

The U.S. economy generated 163,000 jobs last month at the fastest pace since February, a sign it is resilient enough to pull out of a midyear slump and grow modestly even as the rest of the world slows down. Investors have been driving the markets higher on hopes that the positive momentum will continue.

Knight Capital, which had plunged 70 percent last week, were down another $1.13, or 28 percent, to $2.90 in early trading Monday.

The company said in a regulatory filing on Monday that investors agreed to buy $400 million of preferred stock that will be converted into about 267 million of its shares.

Knight takes orders from big brokers like TD Ameritrade and E-Trade and banks. It then routes them to the exchanges where stocks are traded, like the New York Stock Exchange. Its future was thrown into doubt when the trading glitch funneled erroneous orders to the market for 45 minutes Wednesday.

Going in the opposite direction is Best Buy Co., which jumped 20 percent after founder and former CEO Richard Schulze offered to buy the company. Schulze, 71, is its largest shareholder with a 20 percent stake.

Among other stocks that were making big moves Monday, was Pluristem Therapeutics which climbed 70 cents, or 21 percent, to $4.01. The Israeli drugmaker said a cancer patient’s life was saved with the use of certain cells it had developed.

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